A recent article on Medical News Today reveals promising results using growth hormone for treatment of Osteoporosis.
People who have osteoporosis have a higher risk of breaking a bone during a fall.
Osteoporosis results in reduced bone mineral density, bones become thinner and more fragile putting people at risk of fractures, especially of the hip, spinal vertebrae and wrist.
Whilst it can affect both men and women, women tend to be affected at an earlier age due to the menopause.
A recent study in Sweden, believed to be the largest and longest controlled study with growth hormone treatment in post menopausal osteoporosis, is showing promising results.
Over the course of 18 months, 80 postmenopausal women with osteoporosis received daily injections of either a placebo, a single unit of growth hormone or a 2.5-unit dose of growth hormone in the randomized, double-blind trial.
The results are published in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.
The women were between the ages of 50 and 70 when they were recruited and they were followed up over the decade of the full study.
Women on placebo stopped the injections after 18 months, while those randomized to growth hormone continued injections for a further 18 months.
The researchers continued to follow up the women for seven years after the growth hormone treatment was halted, monitoring bone density, fractures and perceptions of quality of life.
The researchers compared the participants’ bone density and rate of fractures with those of a group of 120 women who did not have osteoporosis.
A decade after the study began, the women who received the larger growth hormone dose still had higher bone mineral density levels than the participants who received the lower dose or the placebo.
The rate of fractures in the treated women who had osteoporosis fell by half during the 10-year study.
In contrast, the rate of fractures rose four-fold in the control group as some of those women were diagnosed with osteoporosis.
Read the full article on the Medical News Today website.
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